Extra strong glue designed to be made with the help of carbon strips.
Dikla Oren (translation)
Nano-fastener velcro can hold objects as tightly as strong glue, US researchers say.
The material, which can be reused, is coated with carbon tubes with tapered ends, each about a millionth of a millimeter wide. It can strengthen components in tiny robots, suggest David Tumanek and his co-workers at Michigan State University in East Lansing.
The researchers estimate that the velcro nano-fastener will be as strong as thirty conventional epoxy adhesives. It will bond most solid materials so tightly that the materials themselves will break before the two mating surfaces separate. It will also be about three thousand times stronger than another version of a microscopic velcro fastener, which is made of silicon pieces with hooks engraved on them.
Tomanek's team calculated that two hooks in a Holcro clutch can align as a result of a strong enough pull, and they release unharmed after separation. When pushed back, the hooks reattach.
The energy is stored in their coupling as the tiny hooks bend while the separation between them heats them to a temperature of about a thousand degrees Celsius when they return to their place. But tiny carbon tubes, from which the clutch is made, are strong enough to bear this without breaking, and are very good at conducting heat away from their ends.
Unfortunately, a method has not yet been found to produce tiny carbon tubes and unicycles together in a routine way. managed to produce individual tubes about ten years ago, and a number of researchers managed to grow entire forests of such nanohooks, but not in an orderly manner
(Philip Ball, Nature)
For information on the Nature website
More on the subject on the science website
